Laws on "servitude" (Exodus 21:1-11)
The past five weeks, we've explored five different rabbit trails connected to Exodus, one way or another. We talked about burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings. Then, we talked about three keys, of sorts, that help us understand how to read OT law (put in outline).
(1) The first key, is to understand that the OT law imperfectly reveals God's will. God works with what He has. And what He has, more often than not, are a people who have hard-hearts, who aren't truly, fully committed to loving God and others. God, understanding that, set up Israelite society in a way that helped soften/mitigate this flaw. People are going to get angry with each other, and want to fight each other, and murder each other. They will do this, regardless of whether or not God tells them that's wrong. People will get divorced, regardless of whether or not God is okay with this. Since people are going to sin, God set up the laws in a way that mitigates the harmful effects of sin.
(2) The second key, has to do with Jesus "fulfilling" the law. It's not that Jesus fulfilled the law, so that you don't have to. It's that Jesus explained what God actually wanted. The kingdom community God established in the NT, under the kingship of Jesus, doesn't leave in the allowances for human sin that Moses did. Jesus tells us what God actually wants. Jesus raised the bar.
(3) The third key, has to do with the way WE "fulfill" the law. When we live a life led by the Spirit, sowing to please the Spirit, we fulfill the righteous requirements of the law (Romans 8:1-17). That's the reason there is no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1 needs to be read as one thought, first running through verse 4).
So as I read the OT laws, those are the sorts of things I keep in mind. I think about what the laws teach us about loving God and people. I wonder if the laws imperfectly reflect what God actually wants, because of the hardness of human hearts. And I think about what it means that Jesus raised the bar, in explaining what God actually wants.
I'm hoping this rabbit trail was helpful for you, in lots of different ways. And I was apparently burnt out on Exodus, and needed a little break. But I'm guessing that when I took this break, that we sort of forgot where we were in Exodus. I'm already a little fuzzy on things I can't be, for Exodus to make sense.
So let's reread Exodus 19:1-8:
(1) In the third month of the sons of Israel going out from the land of Egypt, on this day they came to the wilderness of Sinai,
(2) and they set out from Rephidim,
and they came to the wilderness of Sinai,
and they camped in the wilderness,
and Israel camped there before the mountain,
(3) while Moses went up to the God/Elohim,
and Yahweh called to him from the mountain, saying,
"Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and you shall declare to the sons of Israel:
(4) You have seen what I did to Egypt ,
and I lifted/carried you upon the wings of eagles,
and I brought you to myself,
(5) and so then, if you actually heed my voice, and you keep my covenant, you shall be to me a prized treasure out of all the peoples.
Although mine, all the earth [is], (6) you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy/consecrated nation.
These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel,"
(7) and Moses went,
and he called to the elders of the people,
and he set before them all these words that Yahweh commanded him,
(8) and all the people answered together,
"All that Yahweh has spoken, we will do," ["all that Yahweh... "is focused in Hebrew].
and Moses reported the words of the people to Yahweh,
So what God is offering, at this point in Exodus, is a special covenant relationship with Israel. God has proven his love, and his power, to his people. He's shown what He can do. And if Israel wants to have an ongoing relationship with God, they need to respond, in verse 5, by "heeding" God's voice, and "keeping" his covenant. In this relationship, God has expectations for how his people will live. There's a give and take to this relationship-- it's not a one-way street. But God is a good God, and it's a privilege to serve him.
The people respond, in verse 8, by saying that they will obey everything that God has spoken.
At this point, God then unpacks what He wants from his people, in some detail. Then, after hearing all that God expects, the people will have another chance to decide if a covenant relationship with God is something they want, or not. It's up to them (Exodus 24:1-7).
So up to this point, we've read the ten words. And we've read about how to worship God through burnt and fellowship offerings. Now, this week, we read about slavery. In my translation, you'll notice that the word "slave" isn't actually there. The way "slavery" works in the OT, is more like indentured servitude, or bonded labor. [Since I couldn't actually spell "indentured," I can tell I have to explain it]. It's like you're a contract worker, who commits to working for someone for a certain amount of time. You get a signing bonus, that you can use to pay off your debts or provide for yourself and your family. And at the end of that time, you're freed from that contract, and can go back to working for yourself, or someone else.
Some of you are teachers, so this makes a lot of sense. Others of us haven't technically signed a contract like this, but the reality is that we work with what a friend of mine has called "golden handcuffs." The money is too good, or the job is too enjoyable (or maybe both, if you're really lucky) to quit. So technically, we haven't promised our boss anything. Technically, we are free to leave whenever. But the reality is that our bosses would have to pry our hands off our computer keyboards, or steering wheels, or whatever, to get us to quit.
So as we read these verses, I'd encourage you, up front, not to feel super awkward about them. What God is describing, is not like slavery in the American south. It's more like being a teacher.
Verse 1-2:
(21:1) and these are the laws (mishpat) that you shall make before them:
(2) when you acquire a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve,
while in the seventh year he shall go out as a free person at no cost.
There are two things we should see here. The first, is that we are talking about acquiring "Hebrew" servants. We aren't talking about foreigner servants. We are talking about a situation where one Israelite, purchases another.
What situation would cause this? Maybe you're a rancher, and a disease blew through your herd, and killed too many animals for you to make a living. Maybe you grow crops, but three years of drought has made that impossible. Maybe your great idea for a business, completely misread the market. Sometimes, life doesn't work out very well. And if this goes on long enough, eventually you'll have to make the decision to go work for someone, as an indebted servant. So you look around the community, and figure out who you'd like to offer yourself to, and see what they are willing to give you. Or, maybe the most common way this works, is that someone lends you money, and you can't repay it. So you sell yourself to them, to compensate them for what you owe.
This brings us to the second thing we should see. This situation is temporary. Six years is a long time. But it's not forever. And in the seventh year, if you entered into servitude, you get to walk away freely. You don't have to repay that bonus money. Your boss/master can't dishonestly try to keep you forever, by claiming that you owe him because of the food, and clothing, and shelter he provided for you. You are free. No matter how much you owe, you can't be someone's servant forever.
So what we see here, is a protection being put in place for the servant. This is a kindness on God's part, to make sure that hard-hearted, sinful people don't exploit the vulnerable, and create a society where people are involuntarily made servants forever.
Verse 3-6:
(3) If by himself he comes, by himself he goes out.
If the husband of the wife, he [is], his wife shall go out with him.
(4) If his master gives to him a wife, and she bears to him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, [more literally, "shall be for her master"]
while he shall go out alone,
(5) and if the servant surely/actually/surprisingly says,
"I love my master, my wife, and my children.
I will not go out as a free person,"
(6) then his master shall bring him to (the) God,
and he shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost,
and his master shall bore his ear in the doorpost,
and he shall serve him forever,
We maybe trip over these verses. They don't seem very fair. But these are laws put in place that protect the "master." Let's say the master has a "servant," and for one reason or another, he wants to give that servant a wife. Maybe it's an act of kindness on his part-- he has a female servant, and the two of them, working in close proximity, fell in love, and wanted to get married. And then imagine that over the next three or four years, they have a couple kids together.
What happens next? The contract is up. Should the wife and kids be free to go with the man?
Our natural reaction would be to answer "yes." It only seems fair. From a Disney point of view, this seems really straightforward.
But from an economic point of view, the answer has to be "no." A wife and kids are valuable economically. They can help in all sorts of ways, and kids as they grow up, become more and more capable.
So when we read this, we understand that the laws in verses 3-6 are designed to protect the financial rights of the master. It makes sure that the master isn't harmed financially, by taking on a servant. It wouldn't be fair to the master if he lost the right to his female servant, especially if he gave her a signing bonus up front (Deuteronomy 15:12).
So if you're the male servant, and your master offers you a woman to be your wife, you enter into that agreement understanding how it works. At the end of those six years, you will either walk away from her, and your children, giving up your own flesh and blood, or you will never walk away. You have to make a choice.
But if you choose to stay, you can. Verse 6. You can publicly commit to your master. You get your ear pierced through the doorframe-- probably the doorframe of the local sanctuary-- as a way of committing yourself to your master, in God's presence.
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The word here for going to "the deity/God," is just "elohim." Some translations (NIV I think) render it here as "judges," but I'm with William Propp-- there's no real reason to understand it this way, ever. The doorway is the sanctuary doorway, not the house doorway.
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With this, we come to verses 7-11. Here, we seem to be reading about a very specific type of servitude. Before I read them, we should turn to Deuteronomy 15:12.
This is what it sounds like in the Hebrew:
(12) If your brother is sold to you-- the Hebrew man or the Hebrew woman,
and he has served you six years,
in the seventh year you shall send him freely from [being] with you.
Both men and women can be sold into servitude. [The use of the passive verb here puts the focus on what comes next, and not the actual process of the sale]. And even though the verbs are all masculine in form, and it uses language of "brotherhood," the verbs cover male and female. They describe the situation for Hebrew men, and Hebrew women.
The verses we are about to read in Exodus describe a more narrow, specific type of servitude for women. They describe a dad, selling his daughter, who is a minor, not of marital age, to someone. It's a very specific situation.
Now, when we read these verses, we are going to have to work really hard to make sense of the worldview of the text.
So let me try to help you use your imagination here. Imagine that you're a dad, and life has completely fallen apart for you financially. Maybe you're a shepherd, and you lost most of your flock to a disease. Maybe you're a farmer, and you have been unsuccessfully fighting a drought. Or maybe, more simply, you live on the edge of Israel, and the Philistines captured your land.
What next?
Probably, the next step down is to become a day laborer. You move to a different part of the country that's gotten more rain, or hasn't been invaded, and you start each day waiting outside of the Home Depot. You hope that someone has work for you to do that day-- planting, pulling weeds, harvesting. Something.
But when you become a day laborer, it leaves you vulnerable. Some days, no one might need you. You maybe find someone who uses you most days, but one day he finds someone younger and stronger and faster than you, and replaces you with a better worker. And even on those days where you aren't bringing in income, you still have expenses for you and your family.
From there, the next step down is to take on debt. You find yourself borrowing from people to put food on the table, and clothes on your back. But the thing about most debts-- with the modern exception of student loans, apparently-- is that you have to repay them at some point. People want their money back.
What then?
The next step down isn't one that most Westerners would consider. Few of us understand what it's like to be truly desperate. Imagine tucking your kids in at night, knowing that they're hungry, and there's no food in the house. Imagine being two weeks behind on your rent payment, knowing the eviction is coming.
What do you do, when you reach that level of poverty?
At a certain point, the only wealth you have left, is yourself, and your kids.
Now, if you're like me, you'd have four daughters, and a single son. And if I was in that situation, the logical next step is to give my oldest two daughters in marriage to someone else. They are both barely old enough, in an Ancient Near East context, to marry. And when I do that, the husband-to-be pays me. I'm losing valuable economic support, and I get compensated for that loss. The OT isn't clear on how much that payment would be. The texts that talk about it are all complicated, and the point of those texts isn't to talk about how this should work. But the bottom line, is that I'd get paid, and I can use that money to pay off debts, and have a little rainy day fund for when I work as a day laborer. I can provide for everyone else in the family, and try to get back on my feet.
Now, suppose that my daughters aren't old enough to marry. They are 10, or 12 years old. I can't provide for them. I need the money. What can I do?
What I would do, is find a good family to sell my daughter to, with her blessing, and with the expectation that she would one day become a full member of that family. She would marry the master, or the master's son, once she reaches the marital age. In the meantime, she would work as a "maidservant" in that house.
The law we are about to read about addresses this situation. It's called "the law of the daughters." Basically, it's designed to protect my daughter from being mistreated. She would be incredibly vulnerable in that situation, and this law provides a framework for treating her well.
So. Verse 7:
(7) and when a man sells his daughter as a maidservant, she shall not go out as the [male] servants go out.
We are going to see that what verse 7 means, above all else, is that my daughter's servitude isn't temporary. We are talking about a permanent change. But there's also other special guidelines in place. Verse 8:
(8) If bad/displeasing [she is] in the eyes of her master, who chose her for himself, he shall let her be redeemed.
To non-family he doesn't have power/authority to sell her,
because of his acting faithlessly/treacherously with her,
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In the last line of verse 8, I'm understanding the "b" as a "beth causa," meaning, "because of" his acting faithlessly. BHRG 39.6.3.b
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So I've sold my daughter into a nice household, to a good man, who has pledged that he will marry her when the right time comes. My daughter won't be a servant forever; one day, she will become a wife.
But when my daughter joins that house, her master eventually decides that marrying my daughter would be a mistake. Perhaps my daughter is lazy, or a bad cook, or she's difficult to live with, or she has expensive taste. There's something about her, that makes her master decide that marrying her would be a terrible decision. [Most of us are better looking from a distance, and the closer you get in proximity, the more flaws you see, morally and physically].
What then?
The master at that point might tell himself, "She's my servant. I can treat her how I want."
But this law says, "No."
The master has to let her be redeemed. And there are limits placed on who can redeem her. She can't be purchased by anyone on the open market, to the highest bidder.
Who can't she be sold to?
English Bibles will all translate the last part of verse 9, as saying you can't sell her to "foreigners." But the word itself doesn't necessarily mean "foreigner," exactly (a clear example where it does is 2 Chronicles 6:32). [In this, I'm following William Propp's Exodus commentary]. It means something more like "outsider." It's used to describe an adulteress (Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 7:5; Proverbs 23:27; Proverbs 27:13), who is outside of the boundaries of your family. Ecclesiastes 6:2 describes a situation where an "outsider"-- a "stranger," in most translations-- receives the benefits of someone's work after they die. When I die, my kids should get my wealth. If an outsider-- like a coworker-- ended up with it, I'd be peeved. That coworker is an "outsider." [God's work is described as "alien/foreign/outsiderish" in Isaiah 28:21. In Jeremiah 2:21, God complains that Israel was planted as a choice vine, but turned degenerate and become a "wild" vine.]
So I think the base meaning of the word, again (following William Propp), means "outsider." What the law here means, then, is that the master can't sell my daughter to someone outside of my family.
And the reason for this restriction is because he has dealt treacherously toward her. He's been faithless. This is a harsh word (much harsher than English translations really show). He's broken his pledge to my daughter, and to me. He's betrayed her. And for that reason, he's lost control over her future.
What we see here, I think, is that God is making allowances because of human sinfulness. God knows that my daughter has some sinful habits, and in some ways, she might not be much of a catch, and not right for everyone.
God also knows that some masters are going to break their word. They will sin, by not keeping their promises. And God allows that. He tolerates that. But He puts limits on how badly the master can work my daughter over. She is not his plaything, to be used, or sold, however he wants. If she's rejected, for whatever reason, she comes back into the protection of my family.
Maybe we look at these laws, and find ourselves thinking that God should've done things differently.
[Brueggemann, in particular, reads these verses in a nasty, critical way, along these lines].
Maybe, we want to say that the master should be stuck with my daughter. But putting a law in place protecting the master here, makes it more likely that people would actually go through with "buying" a maidservant.
Sometimes in life, you have greater peace of mind buying something, when there's a clear return policy.
At the same time, if the master were to resell my daughter, it would be considered faithlessness, and treachery, on his part. For him to do this, would be the wrong thing to do.
In verses 9-11, Exodus gives us a slightly different situation. Now, imagine that some guy buys my daughter for his son. He's arranging a marriage for his son:
(9) and if for his son he chose her, in accordance with the law (mishpat) of the daughters he shall do
to her,
So basically, everything works the same, even if it's a dad buying my daughter for his son. Nothing changes. No one gets to say, "I bought her for my son, which is a slightly different situation, so I can mistreat her." [God knows he is talking to hard-hearted, sinful people, who will look for wiggle room.]
Verse 10-11:
(10) and if another he takes for himself, her food, her clothing, and her marital rights he shall not reduce,
(11) and if these three things he doesn't do for her, then she shall/may go out as a free person.
There shall not be money.
Imagine that the son keeps his word, and marries my daughter, and then, at some point, adds a second wife. What happens to my daughter?
Today, what would happen in that situation is that the son would divorce my daughter, and start over with someone else. My daughter would left alone, possibly with kids, struggling to make life work as a single mom. That's a hard life, and it can really hard to find a good man, who will marry my daughter in that situation. You often end up dating losers and deadbeats, and fighting for the child support and alimony.
But in the OT, it's not so easy to get rid of my daughter in this situation. If the son marries another, my daughter still has three basic rights that the son has to meet. He has to provide her with food, clothing, and his body. [So when Paul talks about how the husband and wife's bodies belong to the other, 1 Corinthians 7:4, what he's saying is actually rooted in the OT. Interesting.] He can't cut back on any of those three things. So my daughter can keep having kids, and grow her family, and make sure that she is provided for in her old age. If the son does cut back on those three things, because people are sinful and wicked and don't do the right thing, then my daughter-- if she chooses-- can go out as a free person. The purchase price doesn't have to be repaid. She is truly, fully, free.
So who controls how all of this plays out? My daughter does. Not the guy. Interesting, right?
Under the law of the daughters, the son can't divorce my daughter. My daughter, in that situation, is the boss. And the reason God sets it up that way, I think, is that my daughter is far more vulnerable than the average Israelite woman. I'm the broke dad, right? I can't provide for her. And if the son could throw away my daughter, she's might end up selling herself in ways that no one wants to.
So a smart son, eyeballing my daughter, and eyeballing some other woman, will think carefully about what he wants his life to look like. My daughter may have her flaws, but so will this new woman. And how well is it going to work, to put two wives in a single house? How wealthy are you, that you can provide for the children of two women who will probably compete with each other?
When we read the OT, we see that polygamy never worked out great for anyone. It's tolerated in the OT. But it's not God's ideal. God made Adam and Eve. Not Adam, Eve, and Suzy. And if you decide to make it Adam, Eve, and Suzy, God puts protections in place for the first wife.
Now, before jumping into the application completely, I want to try to touch on one thing-- spousal abuse. The passage says nothing about what would happen if the master, or the son, abuses my daughter. Does this mean that the son has to provide her with food, and clothing, and his body, but he can abuse her?
What we see in the OT and NT, as far as I know, is that this issue of abuse isn't directly talked about. You could say it's ambiguous. You could say, if you are hard-hearted and wicked, that the silence of the Bible on this point shows that it's okay.
But I think the silence of the law on this point shows that spousal abuse was just understood as being wicked. Of course you can't. And if you did, I assume my daughter would be able to go to the town elders, and they would tell her she is free to leave. Your spouse's body, is your body. And your body, is your spouse's body. You don't mistreat yourself. You don't mistreat your spouse, who was made in God's image.
The whole point of the law of the daughters, is that the son has to treat my daughter with dignity, and respect. Just because she's vulnerable, and entered his family as a maidservant, doesn't mean that she can be dishonored, and mistreated.
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So those are the first laws in Exodus, for how servitude works. What do we think about them? What do we do with them?
Let me touch on two things we can learn from the first half of the rules on servitude, verses 1-6:
(1) The world can be a really difficult place to make a living. Sometimes, often through no fault of your own, you will find yourself struggling to pay the bills. And with every passing month, it's just getting worse. Inflation is making life harder and harder. It's shocking how expensive things are getting, and our paychecks aren't keeping up.
If this continues, and we get the full-blown recession everyone is talking about, life is going to get really hard. Some of you are going to end up not paying off our credit cards every month, or struggling to make car payments.
If you find yourself in this situation, consider Exodus 21. What these verses show, is that sometimes in life, you have to humble yourself, and do what you need to do to make it.
North Dakotans, for the most part, have always understood this. We know that if we're struggling to pay the bills, the easiest way to fix that, is to pick up extra hours, or get a second job. Maybe, we'd only do this for a while-- for a season. But you pick up extra hours on nights and weekends until you've gotten the credit card paid off, at a minimum.
This mentality is something that much of the U.S. doesn't understand. There's a whole generation that's grown up, that's never lived through a recession. That has no idea what it's like to beg for work, and try to persuade the H.R. person that YOU are the one they should hire.
Lots of people have college degrees that ended up doing nothing for them. In a perfect world, they'd maybe teach history, or philosophy, or gender studies, or Old Testament, for a living. Maybe they'd write novels. But in the real world, the only jobs open that pay a living wage are often blue collar. And at a certain point, you have to come to grips with the fact that you might not pay the bills with your dream job. You do what you have to do to survive, and provide for yourself and your family. That might mean working more hours than you want, or getting a second job. But humble yourself, and do what you have to do.
(2) Just because someone is vulnerable, doesn't mean that they can be exploited. The main thing that this law on servitude does, is put limits on how long it can last. No matter how big your debt, you will be free in the seventh year. Your servitude won't last forever.
What we learn from the "law of the daughters," verses 7-11:
(1) In the OT, God makes some allowance for human sin (Matthew 19:8-- but saving this verse for later).
Some women have qualities that are "displeasing," and make some men think twice about marrying them. Masters and sons will break their pledge, and deal treacherously with daughters. Men will find themselves wanting to marry someone else. In the OT, God accepts that these things will happen. He tolerates them.
(2) In the OT, God makes only SOME allowance for human sin.
There are limits to how badly we can sin against one another, and betray one another, and abandon one another. God puts safeguards in place so that the most vulnerable-- and single young girls are right near the top of that list-- can't be mistreated. Young single girls are not really property. They aren't playthings, to be used how you want. They can't be resold to just anyone. They can't be neglected, or mistreated. And they can't even be divorced, as far as I can tell, because they would be incredibly vulnerable. In the OT, God draws a line that can't be crossed, without severe consequences.
(3) What God actually wants, is far more costly. Jesus raises the bar, and explains God's vision for his people:
A) God wants husbands and wives to be faithful to one another. No divorce, no polygamy.
B) God wants people to keep their word. If you make a pledge, you keep that pledge.
C) God wants people to act righteously toward the vulnerable.
If we turn to the NT, it's easy to show that this is what God wants. But even if all we use is the OT, we can see hints of what God actually thinks, by the protections God puts in place for the daughters.
(1) If she's displeasing to the master, the master has to let her be redeemed.
(2) In that situation, she has to be redeemed by a family member, not an outsider.
(3) Once married, the daughter can't be deprived of the things she has a right to-- food, clothing, and conjugal rights.
(4) If she's mistreated, and deprived, she gets to go free, without cost. The purchase price doesn't hang over her head forever.
The bottom line is that God wants husbands to act faithfully toward their wives, and treat them with dignity, and respect. Men, you might find yourself feeling hard-hearted about your wife, at some point. You'll maybe want to break your pledge to her, and abandon her for someone else. You'll maybe want to act treacherously toward her. You'll maybe want to mistreat her.
Don't.
Translation:
(21:1) and these are the laws (mishpat) that you shall make before them:
(2) when you acquire a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve,
while in the seventh year he shall go out as a free person at no cost.
(3) If by himself he comes, by himself he goes out.
If the husband of the wife, he [is], his wife shall go out with him.
(4) If his master gives to him a wife, and she bears to him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, [more literally, "shall be for her master"]
while he shall go out alone,
(5) and if the servant surely/actually/surprisingly says,
"I love my master, my wife, and my children.
I will not go out as a free person,"
(6) then his master shall bring him to (the) God,
and he shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost,
and his master shall bore his ear in the doorpost,
and he shall serve him forever,
(7) and when a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she shall not go out as the [male] servants go out.
(8) If bad/displeasing [she is] in the eyes of her master, who chose her, he shall let her be redeemed.
To foreigners he doesn't have power/authority to sell her,
because he acted faithlessly/treacherously with her,
(9) and if for his son he chose her, in accordance with the law (misphat) of the daughters he shall do
to her,
(10) and if another he takes for himself, her food, her clothing, and her marital rights he shall not reduce,
(11) and if these three things he doesn't do for her, then she shall go out as a free person.
There shall not be money.
